Volodymyr Zelenskyy honors unarmed soldier filmed being shot

• Oleksandr Matsievskiy, a captured Ukrainian soldier, was honored by Zelenskyy.
• With the Hero of Ukraine honor for his bravery, confidence in Ukraine.
• The only weapon he had was his pride in being Ukrainian.

A captured Ukrainian soldier who was captured last week and appeared to have been killed by Russian troops was honored by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

When Oleksandr Matsievskiy was shot dead while being captured on camera smoking a cigarette and yelling “Glory to Ukraine,” he was unarmed.

As a result of the video, Russia is now the target of new war crime accusations.

The 42-year-old was presented with the Hero of Ukraine honor, which is the nation’s highest distinction, on Sunday by President Zelenskyy.

“Today, I have bestowed the title of Hero of Ukraine on soldier Oleksandr Matsievskiy,” Mr. Zelensky said in his nightly address from Kyiv.

“A man that all Ukrainians will know. A man who will be forever remembered. For his bravery, for his confidence in Ukraine and for his ‘Glory to Ukraine’.”

It is thought that Matsievskiy, a sharpshooter serving with a unit from Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, was killed at the end of 2017 while engaged in combat in Bakhmut, an eastern city that Russia has been attempting to seize for months in a grueling attrition war.

Following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s southern Crimea peninsula in 2014, the soldier’s parting remarks, “Glory to Ukraine,” gained notoriety among regular Ukrainians.

Once Moscow’s full-scale invasion began last year, it has experienced a revival.

As the prisoner of war (POW) is shot dead, one of the shooters, who is thought to be a Russian soldier, is heard yelling “death” and uttering an expletive.

The identity of the soldier was initially unclear, and the Ukrainian military initially mistakenly identified him as Tymofiy Shadura, another missing soldier who had been fighting in Bakhmut.

The death has been deemed “further sign this war is genocidal,” according to Ukrainian authorities, who have opened a criminal inquiry and vowed to find those responsible.

On the video, Russia has not made any public comments.

Matsievskiy was also a citizen of Moldova, according to a statement released on Monday by the Moldovan foreign ministry, which strongly denounced his murder and charged Moscow with war crimes.

Since President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion, Kiev and its Western allies have accused Russian troops of committing widespread war crimes, like as torture, rape, and murder.

The accusations are rejected by Moscow.

“He stood there without weapons, but at the same time, he was proud to be Ukrainian,” she told the newspaper.

“He was always incredibly courageous. At that moment, the only weapon with which he could defend himself was saying: Slava Ukraini [Glory to Ukraine]!”

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